Al-Qarara Seed Bank: When the seed becomes the beginning of restoring agriculture in Gaza

A report on the Al-Qarara Seed Bank in Khan Younis, which Salem Muhanna and his daughter Hanadi revived after its destruction in the war. The project aims to collect local seeds and distribute them for free to farmers to propagate and return a portion, in an attempt to restore the agricultural production cycle in Gaza.

A report from Khan Younis on the Al-Qarara Seed Bank, founded by Salem Muhanna in 2017, which had collected dozens of local varieties before the war. After its headquarters were destroyed and its stock was lost during the war, Muhanna and his daughter Hanadi revived the project in late 2024 with limited resources. The bank once held about 70 tons of seeds distributed across 42 varieties, including 38 fully local varieties. Today, it collects whatever seeds possible from farmers and distributes them for free to 42 farmers, who are to return a portion of their produce after harvest. Current available quantities include seeds of fava beans, wheat, spinach, chard, celery, and barley, but it lacks important varieties such as tomatoes and cucumbers. The project faces storage issues due to the lack of refrigerators and the spread of rodents, limiting its ability to preserve seeds for more than four months. Muhanna describes local seeds as having helped survival during the war and granting farmers independence from the market.